A judge has rejected a request for an emergency competency hearing after a survivalist convicted of ambushing two Pennsylvania State Police troopers refused to communicate with his lawyers.

Eric Frein (freen) was convicted of capital murder last week in the 2014 attack that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson II and injured a second trooper. He faces a potential death sentence.

The penalty phase of Frein's trial was delayed Monday morning. His lawyer told the judge that Frein would not walk or talk and was "staring off into space." Lawyer Michael Weinstein requested that Frein's mental competency be evaluated.

But prosecutors played a recording of a phone call that Frein placed to his mother over the weekend in which he appeared to be talking normally. The judge denied Frein a competency hearing.